Moon- earth’s nearest neighbor
Constellations
One can see only about 2000 stars in a clear blue sky.
One can o you know that there are billions of stars?
If you look at the sky you can see that groups of stars form the outline of some peculiar shapes.
These patterns formed by the stars in the sky are called constellations.
These constellations were named about 2000 years ago.
The Big Dipper is a part of a large constellation called the Big Bear.
The Big dipper is formed by seven stars.
They form a bowl with a handle.
The most impressive constellation is Orion, the hunter.
Constellations change with the season and move from east to west, without changing their shape.
Moon-earth’s nearest neighbor
When the sky is clear and the moon is full, it seems to us that we can easily touch the moon. No doubt the moon is our nearest neighbor. It is 384,000 kilometers away from the earth.
The moon is hard and rocky. Like the sun, it is not a ball of gases. Like the earth revolves around the sun, the moon also revolves around the earth in its own orbit. The moon takes a complete month to make one revolution.
Phases of moon
The moon has no light of its own. Moonlight is the reflection of sun’s light on the moon’s surface. As the moon revolves around the earth we are sometimes not able to see all the surface of the moon that the sun light up. This makes the moon appear as if it changes its shape. The changing shapes of the moon are called its phase.
The moon orbits around the earth. Any object that orbits a lager object is called a satellite. There are many satellites orbiting the earth but moon is our only natural satellite. Earth orbits around the sun.
Planets
The earth is planet that revolves around the sun. There are eight other planets that also revolve around the sun. These planets are mercury, Venus, mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Mercury is closest to the sun. All these planets together with the sun make the solar system.
Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and mars can be seen without a telescope. One can recognize mars from its red color.
Other planets with their moons
Earth is not only planet which has moon. Pluto has one moon. Mars has two moons. Neptune has two and Uranus five. Saturn has 19 and Jupiter has 16 moons. Mercury and Venus do not have any moon.
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